Veloutes Imperator

The cafe, as always, was perfumed with the scent of roasted coffee beans and held under the protective gaze of the mustachioed faun who sat behind the counter with a notepad. According to bartender faun, some of the contestants had been raising a ruckus, and the group became convinced that if they continued to act untowardly as guests of their establishments, maybe they could squeeze another hour of orgy time into their union demands. So it was with disappointment that she watched Lily and Noemi sitting with their drinks quietly in the corner.

Lily smelled the aromatic fumes of her pistachio latte. She was thankful that whatever changes to her biology that being a plant caused her, removing her ability to eat and drink wasn’t one of them. Though that did suggest she was possibly more closely related to something like a carnivorous plant that needed to supplement its photosynthesis. If she took a sample, could she narrow it down?

It’s funny, most of her time here had been spent thinking about dealing with others or Caleb and, because of that, she hadn’t spent much curiosity on her very first transformation. There was a reason that her VTuber avatar had been an alraune; Lily loved plants. She loved taking care of them, pruning them, watching them grow. Ever since she had been little, it had been the one thing she could pour love into and see it respond.

Now, she hoped there were other people here that she could say that with, and it was out of consideration for those people that she had asked Noemi here.

The Chilean woman was happily sipping her americano and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. Lily decided to start there, “You seem to be handling the stress of all this well; I wish I could say the same.”

Noemi beamed over at Lily, “It’s just because I know everything is going to be ok, you know? I know everyone has their own situation, but in the end we’re all here, right? Destiny has made itself abundantly clear on what’s going to happen.”

Lily tried to hide her wincing at the remark; she knew it was at least partially motivated by her transformation, but the unhinged sincerity of Noemi’s statements like that always sent a shiver up her spine. “I guess that’s true; if the show has its way, we’ll all end up with Caleb in the end. Is that enough though?” She wanted to be able to communicate with Noemi, get her to at least understand some of the concerns the other women had here. If she could do that…she felt it would go a long way.

Taking a sip of her drink, Noemi shrugged, “I’m not dumb, y’know? I know there's more to life than having a man at your side. That being said, if we’re all a big happy family, supporting each other and having each other's backs, do we really need to be concerned about anything else?” Her grin broadened. “I know how much having family in your corner means to you.”

“Not…not everyone has that experience, though.” Lily could feel tension in her chest and tried to swallow it to avoid breaking down emotionally and lashing out. This wasn’t about her. This was about everyone here and Noemi too. She didn’t want to fall into old patterns and just start a fight. “Family is great, but it's not just support, right? Sometimes it can be baggage and burdens. Sometimes it’s expectations…sometimes it’s being taken for granted. I know you have a good family, but aren't there times where it’s been a source of pain?”

Noemi blinked, and for a moment her head was full of her Mama’s voice. Watch the kids, pick them up, you can’t stay after school, keep your grades high. She swallowed and then brought her mouth to her cup again. No, it was all for everyone’s benefit. It made the kids safe and happy. So what if she didn’t have friends or had trouble biting her nails? It kept the family safe, and family made her happy. She pushed her cup down onto the table with a little too much force.

“Maybe some families are like that, sure.” She conceded, “But ours will have Caleb and me at the top! We’ll look out for everyone; you see how concerned he was for Stella? And she does nothing but cause problems, so you know if it was for one of the others, he would work just as hard.”

“What about you then? Would you work hard for someone like Stella?” Lily raised an eyebrow. “You know when I was struggling, she was the one who managed to reach out to me and get me to stop blaming others for my problems. So maybe it’s not fair to label her like that.”

“You’re all precious sisters to me. Mira might be a problem, and Stella might be a flake, but I consider everyone family. I would always make sure family is taken care of and make sure they’re taking care of each other.” Noemi responded calmly, even as her eye twitched.

Lily sensed the tension, and while she didn’t want to antagonize Noemi, she needed to know the truth. “And if they act out, if they don’t behave the way you want? Are you going to go after them with a bat as you did with Mira?”

“What Mira did was a special kind of evil, and she needed to know it wouldn’t be tolerated.” Noemi began to tap her foot. “I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’m the only one here with a clear vision for how this harem thing needs to go for everyone to end up happy. Caleb sees it too! Why else would he have forgiven me?”

“Oh, I’m not touching that one with a ten-foot pole.” Lily’s eyes pointedly glanced down at Noemi’s chest. “But maybe Caleb being able to forgive you isn’t some divine mandate; maybe pumping out kids and being some weird family unit isn’t what everyone wants.”

“Isn’t what they want now. But people will see the farther we get in, that my way is the only way that makes sense. Don’t fight me on this.” Noemi grit her teeth and leaned in over the table.

Lily arched back, “I wanted to see if there was any chance for common ground, if you had anything in your head besides this wacked out fantasy you’ve built up. Now I see I’ve wasted my time.”

Lily got up to move, leaving her drink at the table, and Noemi lunged out and grabbed her arm, “Let go of me, Noemi!”

“Why does no one understand! Why can’t any of your cono puta get it through your head that I’m trying to help you! I’m the only one who has this figured out!”

“Maybe because you treat us like underlings instead of other people stuck in the same situation as you.” Lily tugged on her arm, but Noemi’s grip was bear-like in its intensity and not letting go, “Noemi-you’re hurting me!”

“Because you’re ignoring destiny! Fate has called out to each and every one of us to give us a happy ending, and you’re all spitting on the chance. I’m the only one trying to lead us on the right path!” Her eyes suddenly narrowed. “Just remember that I gave you a chance!”

Lily’s face lit up with rage. “Gave me a chance? Noemi, what the hell are you talking about?! Let me go!”

But suddenly Noemi’s hands were glowing a shadowy pink that crawled up Lily’s arm and began to cover her body as Noemi looked her in the eye. “I think it would be best if you took my side on this.”

Lily’s eyes took a glazed pink glow, and she muttered dreamily, “Take…your side.”

“Everyone should fall in line with destiny and fate and become a big happy family.” Noemi held on to Lily’s arm like a lifeline. She didn’t know how long the power might take or what would happen if she let go before it was finished.

“Big…happy family,” Lily droned out, a thin smile breaking out across her features.

Seeing the idea settle in Lily’s mind, Noemi slowly let go and then tried to return the smile, “I think it was good of us to talk like this, Lily, don’t you?”

Lily blinked, the glow from her eyes fading as she smiled back at Noemi, “Oh for sure, I just wasn’t seeing things clearly. We just need to get everyone on the same page about this.” She giggled, “It will be so cute when everyone’s kids are playing together.”

Noemi’s smile brightened. “Ex-exactly! That’s what I’m saying.”

Lily sat back down and took a sip of her latte before blinking. “Were we arguing about something?”

Noemi quickly shook her head. “I can’t imagine what it could have been.”

In the corner, the mustachioed faun was writing furiously on her notepad.

Caleb was lying back in a gondola, his umbrella completely covering his face. His chest was heaving, partially from physical exertion, the other part being that while the umbrella helped, it wasn't foolproof. On his previous excursions outside of the hotel, there had always been another party with him to keep his focus off the fact that he was outside. Now, just running around the various locales of the hotel, he had nothing but his mind, which was swimming in unhelpful thoughts.

Where was Stella? Why was she hiding out? If she didn’t want to be found, was this an intrusion on her privacy? Was he overstepping and taking this Master business too seriously?

So far, he had searched the places that had felt like fairly obvious places she might be hiding out in. The shopping district had been the first place to check, the various places they had run around on their first date. Then he checked the isle of the colourful homes, where Stella said she visited when she had needed time to herself. No dice in either location, but Caleb had almost expected as much. Those were places Stella would be if she wanted to be found, and he had the sense that it was not the case for this disappearance.

Why had she pretended to be ok last night? Why did Amy’s words upset her so much? What could get under the skin of that tempestuous imp?

So now the gondola was headed towards a Hail Mary, a location that Caleb had suspected might be on the island but hadn’t ventured to yet. He had planned on investigating it for their date today, but maybe the bartender was once again one step ahead of him and had beaten him to it.

He felt the Gondola come to a stop and lifted his body up along with the umbrella in his hands. The air here was balmy, much more humid than the rest of the islands that he had visited so far. He climbed up on the dock and saw that the island itself was quite large, with what appeared to be several structures. One with wooden lattice walls was on the far end, while the closest was the one he had been looking for.

The large Marble structure appeared to be shaped like the letter M and had a large plaque at the multi-story entrance labeling it as the “Castello Librum”. As he approached the building, he looked back at the Faundolier who had brought him here, “Don’t suppose there’s any way you could just tell me if someone else was already here, eh?” The faundolier just shrugged and Caleb sighed, “Thought not.”

Entering inside, Caleb folded his umbrella. The building was radiant from the inside, entirely lit by the tall glass windows, sending cascading sunbeams through the space and giving life to small clouds of dust hovering through the air. Card catalogues greeted you at the front before giving way to a sepia-toned mass of bookshelves covering the walls and everything in between like a university library on steroids.

Caleb gently ran his fingers over a waist-height bookshelf and whistled. A library- he had a lot of confidence that the island would have something like that, and when he had been thinking of places to take Stella, this had been the first one to come to mind. Maybe Stella wasn’t that shy, nerdy girl he had always imagined while staring in that small used bookstore, but her love of reading and knowledge was no joke. He wanted to pick her brain about her favourites, what she wanted to read next; maybe they could look for books from other worlds.

He found his fingers clenched tight. “Stella, where did you go?” Maybe the others were having better luck than he. He could always head back and check, and then, after regrouping, head back out. With a heavy sigh, he began to make his way out of the library.

He was about to make his way over to the docks when he thought he heard something in the distance, something faint and musical. Someone humming? Singing? It was coming from farther back on the island where that wooden structure was. Was it Stella? Caleb had his doubts that someone wanting not to be found would be singing to herself, but if he ignored it, he would never know.

He began to make his way towards the wooden structure, and as he approached, every so often he heard a sharp sound of wood hitting wood. Eventually, that was joined by the sound of flowing water as the air around him became masked with heavy flows of steam as he approached the sound of the singing.

The air was heavy and wet as Caleb closed his umbrella under the partial enclosure. Inside there were bushes, rocks, and gravel, which gave what was now clearly viewed as a spa a natural vibe, and there, leaning back against the side wall, fully nude and only partially obscured through milky waters, was Andrea, her eye trained on Caleb as she let out her final note

Upon making eye contact, Caleb moved to open his umbrella to leave but was met with the sound of the water stirring as Andrea moved and gazed at him. “Not so fast, Caleb, you're looking for someone, right?”

“I-there’s no point in asking you how you know, is there?” Caleb fumed

Andrea smiled gently, “No games here, well, just the one, and it’s simple. Join me in the bath, and we trade question for question. If you satisfy my curiosity, I'll tell you where your lost lamb is.”

Caleb bit his lip, “Or I ignore you and keep searching.”

“Caleb dear, this Island is near infinite, and you don't have a lodestone for where to even start looking. You could search for years and not find her. And you don’t have that time. Do you? With my angelic sight, I can tell you exactly where she is, so…” She let the words hang dangerously

Caleb clenched his hand tight and tossed his umbrella to the side. “Fuck!” He reached up and pulled off his shirt.

Andrea hummed while admiring the view from behind, “There’s a good boy.”